This invention relates to soilless plant growing in general; and, in particular, to a systems approach to hydroponic farming of plants such as lettuce, that greatly minimizes plant handling, improves nutrient flow, facilitates cleaning, and reduces workplace clutter.
In hydroponic farming, plants are grown without soil by supplying them with nutrients and water through conduits to enhance and promote plant growth under controlled environmental conditions.
The hydroponic farming process of some lettuce plants, for example, encompasses a 40-day growth cycle from seed planting to harvest, including three stages: a first, germination stage in which seeds are soaked in 100% water; a second, seedling stage in which the sprouting plants are supplied with a 20% nutrient/80% water solution; and a third, maturing plant growth stage in which 100% nutrient solution is supplied until the plants are fully grown. In a typical conventional operation, the plants are handled one or more times at each stage, while they are transferred from tray to tray and location to location. The usual conventional approach does not move the plants, or locate the equipment in an efficient way according to the succession of growth stages and handling steps involved. Equipment arrangements are cluttered and difficult to clean. Nutrient lines are left exposed to light which promotes undesired algae growth, and hoses have small openings that become readily clogged, so entire rows of plants can be lost at one time. Nutrient is also fed to the hoses in an uneven manner, so that hoses have different pressures and unused hoses can pop off, causing spillage. Also, conventional plant growth trays are poorly configured, so sides sag and spread, causing nutrient flow to miss plants.